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Letters: Obscene pay for new NMSU leaders

Las Cruces Sun-News
Published 6:24 p.m. MT June 6, 2018

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Dan Arvizu, left, New Mexico State University's chancellor designate, and President-designate John Floros, right, listen to Debra Hicks, the chair of the NMSU Board of Regents, at a meet-and-greet Tuesday, May 22, 2018, at Corbett Center on the NMSU campus.(Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News)Buy Photo

Obscene pay for new NMSU leaders

The NMSU corporate board (Board of Regents), acting on their belief that if you pay the top dogs enough you will reap excellence and dedication from all the workers, paid an obscene, but not yet fully known, amount for an untried chancellor and a new president. What perks, such as travel, a house, a car, family benefits are included with these salaries? How much are the fringe benefits at this level? 30%? 40%? And these salaries do not include so-called performance bonuses.

For the past few years, we have heard endless stories of the budget crisis at NMSU. Programs have been eliminated; staff have been let go, faculty positions have been dissolved, tuition has been raised. Faculty salaries continue to lag behind those at their peer institutions; many going 5 to 10 years without a raise.

And yet the Board of Regents miraculously found money to pay $950,000 to a chancellor and president? Carruthers is getting $373,450 for doing both jobs. What a slap in the face to everyone else in the NMSU system!

The Board of Regents claims that increased enrollment will help pay for these salaries. They say a 1% increase in enrollment will bring in an additional $1 million. But that is not profit; most of it will be spent on goods and services for those additional students. Declining enrollment is a 6-year national trend, not the fault of Carruthers or the current administration. What can the new leaders do to break this trend? Continue to lower academic standards? Perhaps one place they could save money is by acting on Floros' title, President of the NMSU System, and eliminate the president position at the five branch campuses.

Larry Gioannini

Las Cruces

Wish country would bring back the draft

My wife and I attended the Memorial Service this morning and we saw the damage that was done to the Huey. The article that Mr. Frances Williams wrote about the Memorial and the committee that worked on the construction was outstanding. My article is about the punks who are driving around Las Cruces with nothing better to do than to shoot at a Huery that sits on a pole. If you want to show us your marksman skills, join the Army or Marines and shoot at moving targets that are trying to kill you.

I used to tell my two grandsons that if they did some damage to property, that they had mush for brains. I am a Vietnam vet, and I lost a lot of friends in that conflict and I don't appreciate you punks destroying a very beautiful memorial that honors all the Vietnam vets from Dona Ana County. Please show a little respect to those that served and died so that you can do what you want with your lives.

If you punks don't have anything better to do with your spare time, then maybe you should volunteer and help out with projects here in our city. I am 80 years old and I still volunteer in doing something that people enjoy listening to, I perform in a symphony and some of the musicians are older than me!

I just wish that the U.S. government would bring back the draft, than some of these punks would learn respect and even end up with a career to help them survive in this world.